Category: Articles

Trust forms the foundation for all relationships and in the B2B tech space, that’s no different. We wanted to delve into how brands approached trust building and customer loyalty as part of our The Question of Trust research. So we interviewed a range of marketing professionals from B2B tech brands to find out.

This is what Gail Cook, Head of Strategy & Insights at Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation had to say:

“We’ve been around for 70 years, so there’s a trust element there. We’re not a fly-by-night company. We’re not going to go out of business. That’s really important to us and building our brand and our reputation because you see it nowadays, particularly with this digital age and online, is the number of overseas manufacturers who are now able to sell into our markets. People can buy through Facebook and can buy through different channels.

They’re buying electronic equipment that’s maybe not tested, and they’re not up to our safety standards. Then you get counterfeit products. People don’t know any better, and we have a job to do to build trust with our consumers through our brand so that they know when they purchase our products, they are safe, and they can trust us as a brand.

I think more and more brand reputation is going to become even more important in the future, particularly for those end consumers”.

Q: What are the most important components of customer trust?

For us, customer trust is about building partnerships and relationships with people. That’s about us doing what we say we’re going to do, being open and honest, having two-way dialogues.

For us, we also see sustainability as part of trust building.

Many of our retailers, many of our customers are asking for specific credentials around what we’re doing to be more sustainable as a business. We have the full traceability of every product that we make and where those components and where those parts come from and where the raw materials come from, what factories have been produced in and what labour has been used. We share that information with them.

In addition, our factory is fully accredited from a health and safety point of view, and the manufacturing standards. Customers can be confident in what we say around the safety of our products, and that’s something we pride ourselves on. Safety is at the heart of everything that we make.

Q: Have you adopted any new approaches in building those relationships with customers?

Yes. Our industry is changing a lot and there’s a lot of legislation that’s coming into force and that causes uncertainty. We’ve taken the lead in understanding that legislation and supporting our customers and playing that back to bring value in that partnership with them. We’ve been doing CPDs and training sessions online. We would normally have those as face-to-face sessions. Actually, we’ve been able to get more customers coming along to those, and we’re giving those CPDs free of charge. We’re doing analysis that they don’t have time to do themselves. We’re helping them as a business. It’s some of what we’ve been doing in the past, but it’s in a different way of doing that.

Q: What role has PR and marketing played in helping you build that trust? Has it been more significant?

Definitely more significant. We’ve been supporting our sales colleagues. It’s typically our commercial colleagues who would have those direct relationships with the customers, particularly in a B2B environment. We’re supporting behind the scenes. We’ve been investigating the technologies that are available to help them have those communications. We’ve been on the sidelines supporting, making sure things run smoothly, troubleshooting for them because we want them focused on the relationship, not on the peripheral stuff around that.

We’re trying to position ourselves as a trusted expert, and that’s been received really well. We’re bringing activities that are added value to that customer’s business. We’re not just about pushing out our products to them. It’s that added value. How can we help their business grow?

Q: Where do you see the biggest opportunities for PR and marketing in building trust?

There has never been a more important time for brands to step up and talk about what they do well and build their relationships. In my 20 years of marketing, there’s never been a more turbulent time between Brexit, global supply issues, a global pandemic. This is really an unsettling time for everybody. As brands and as familiar brands, we have the rule to build people’s confidence back up that we’re still here, the world is still normal. We provide great products. It’s been unsettling, but we’re here.

Brands have values, we stand for things. As a brand, we do what we say we’re going to do, and we can communicate that out there. We have to now take that step up and bring that reassurance and that trust back to the markets in which we operate.

What does trust mean to B2B tech brands? How is it established? How is it fostered? And what challenges are businesses facing? As part of our The Question of Trust research, we spoke to marketing professionals from a range of tech companies to get their insights and experiences.

This is what Helen Aboagye, CMO at Imagen had to say:

Q: In your opinion, what are the components of consumer trust?

For me, it is that you have a quality product. It needs to do what it says on the tin. It needs to be fit for purpose, and it needs to address or does what customers need it to do. It needs to address and fixes their problems and pain points. I think that’s followed by validation preferably from external sources to your company, so customer validation, industry validation, whether that be in the form of case studies, customers allowing you to use their logos, testimonials, placement in the Gartner Magic Quadrant. I think a strong brand is critical to creating consumer trust. For me, that is a brand with a clear sense of purpose and identity. This needs to be brought to life through your marketing, your people and run through the DNA of everything a company does. I’m a big believer in people buying into you as well as buying from you. Finally getting your brand out there through brand awareness activity and PR,  so people can get to know your brand and see the customer’s validation for themselves.  If people don’t know who you are, they don’t know whether they can trust you.

Q: In the past, how have you typically built trust?

Like many companies, we used many different strategies and tactics. It was very much a multi-pronged approach. Wherever possible we reference our customers from logos on our website to testimonial usage and written and video case studies.

With so many people doing more than half their research online before they even get in touch and want to talk to a salesperson, it is more important than ever that we create the content they need, to arm them with the information they want, so that they want to ‘pick up the phone’. Content in all its forms is important, but creating content that talks to customer pain points, right the way through to independent research and data-driven, anything data-driven I think really helps to validate trusts as well.

And finally, our salespeople and account managers create a lot of trust through the relationships they build and the knowledge they have about our product and industry.

Q: How has that changed in the last 12 months?

We’ve really focused on ramping our digital marketing side of things. We’ve put more into paid search and we have been focused on developing our pages and communities across certain review sites like G2 and Capterra. We have also taken the opportunity to rethink our internal processes. We have focused on what more we can automate when it comes to our of our marketing outreach and communication.

But specifically, we have looked at how we can find the higher intent people that are essentially in the market for a solution. Historically we have put a lot of effort into really compelling pieces of content that many people will find interesting, but they are not in the market for a solution. This helps with brand awareness but doesn’t create leads that convert.

However, what we have been doing a lot more of is utilising new marketing technologies and platforms and sites like G2 and Capterra, as I mentioned, to understand who’s in the market for a solution, and then building much more tailored outreach and personalised account-based outreach.

We have also been doing a lot more videos. Short-form videos, human, a little rough around the edges. With so many people not being able to see or have contact with others during the pandemic, video is the next best thing, and people retain a lot more information from video than they do written content.

Q: Do you think your shift in focus to digital and ABM strategies will stay?

Yes, without a doubt. I still think there is value in the way we’ve done things before, but I think everyone’s moving in this direction, and the pandemic has just accelerated this, and not just in marketing.  The pandemic has also helped to blur the lines between online and physical, you just need to look at the event industry as evidence of this.  So I think we’ll just see more and more of that without a doubt. Also, we’ve been able to do a lot more with a lot less. Our budgets were cut massively, but our lead numbers are in the realm of what they were when we were spending a lot more money. I think our cost per lead has come down quite dramatically with the efforts that we’ve put into digital.

Q: From a PR and marketing point of view, where do you think the biggest opportunities will lie in building trust with customers and prospects?

I think there’s a real opportunity on the PR side of things. I mentioned the need for being genuine earlier, and I think there’s a real opportunity to hear individual voices on the PR side of things over and above like corporate press releases.

Content is still king, but I think it’s the type of content that people are consuming is changing. For example, there’s a real demand for longer white papers but people are so incredibly time-poor, they just don’t always get around to reading them. I think the more you can translate your efforts of white papers into bite-sized chunks and infographics and videos and podcasts and webinars and things like that, the greater the rewards you will reap.

We’ve seen a massive increase in video marketing and people doing lots of video content that is shot from their bedroom. Webinars and online events for thousands of people are being shot from people’s attics and that’s fine. I think people are much more accepting of less professionally shot videos, you don’t need a slick corporate video anymore when you can get your CEO to record something on her or his phone.  This makes your brand and company more human and will probably go a longer way to building consumer trust. All of which is great for a company like us that helps people produce and manage and them.

By Mark Wilson, Creative Director

We all love a good podcast – from true crime and football fantasy, to epic cookery and comedy. There is a podcast on every topic.

But it’s not just entertainment. And content isn’t just directed at consumers. I’ll say it again… there is a podcast on every topic. Business, tech, creative, advertising, tech PR, HR… the list goes on. As a business owner or marketing professional you’ve most likely already asked the question: how can podcasts help my business?

The answer is simple.

The right podcast, with engaging and informative content, can be used in much the same way as any other PR and marketing asset. It is a great vehicle to support your objectives, and can be used to fuel awareness of your brand, generate leads and demonstrate thought leadership.

The best thing about podcasts is that they are so versatile — giving you almost carte blanche when it comes to format. Q&A, monologue, conversational, panel… the choice is yours. Depending on your objective and your content, of course.

And again, just like with other marketing and PR assets, the podcast is best used as part of a balanced campaign mix, covering off a range of different assets for every touchpoint; social, video, eBooks and the likes. Not everyone consumes content in the same way so it’s important to give your audience options and make it easy for them to engage with your brand.

The podcast is also the perfect tool to humanise your business and give your customers and potential customers insights into the people behind the brand. You can talk about your values, highlight your staff or simply give them valuable content in a personalised way, whether that’s coming from a subject matter expert or your CEO.

Another key element that podcasts can help with is credibility. We all know that having your existing clients talk about their successes and positive experiences with your business is a valuable sales tool. Also think about employee advocacy; having your team talk about their experiences, career growth and why they enjoy their jobs can help boost that assurance for prospective clients but also help attract the right candidates for new roles.

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t a simple answer. But the facts are clear around the value that a professionally executed and promoted podcast can deliver to your business. Whether that’s providing a window into your brand and your team, reinforcing what you stand for or demonstrating your expertise and thought leadership to the market, podcasts are definitely worth considering for your brand.